Thursday was so one of these very Colombian days: problems with the bus in the morning and in the afternoon, and at work problems with alternating internet, air conditioning or electricity. Very efficient working, so I spent the whole morning singing with the kids. The temperature in our office went the whole day from very hot to very cold and as result I am now sick with a sore throat. Then my Colombian sim card stopped working and without me knowing, my phone managed to connect to the internet with my French sim card (100 euros to pay, thank you). I was tired and frustrated and, in addition, still feeling anxious about what happened in Brazil. All I wanted to do was go home and cry so I left from work. I know that these are just minor first world problems and that for example the people who live in La Boquilla don't even have things like internet, air-conditioning or smartphones. But still, you get my point. As if this was not enough to make me loose my mind, in the evening my Lumia suddenly started blinking in green an yellow lights and then died completely. So from now on, this blog is without pictures, except if take some very bad ones with my old iPhone, which stills works but barely. Yesterday morning I woke up exhausted (mum, I had the stress dream again, the one that you have as well, where you try to travel but never get there), and I was not excited about my surfing class. However, I figured that it could not make me feel worse so I went. Of course, there were not enough waves for surfing so I couldn't have my class. My teacher F suggested we go paddleboarding instead and I'm happy he did because it was a lot of fun and made me feel so much better. Thank you F!

Obviously I didn't think of asking someone to take pictures of us but you can imagine the Caribbean Sea, warm water, and a light summer breeze. I had never tried paddleboarding before but it was surprisingly easy. It required a little bit of balance and concentration to stand on the board and paddle but nothing compared to surfing. So we paddled far away in the wide open sea, enjoyed the sun and at times just took a break, relaxed on our boards and went swimming. At one point it started raining and I got crazy excited. I still hadn't seen real rain since my last day in Havana in the beginning of February so it felt extremely good and refreshing, even if it only lasted for 5 minutes maybe. It was fun with F, he is always so positive and helps me put things into perspective. He never worries about anything and his motto is "tomorrow is a new sunny day". We stayed in the water for at least three hours and even after that I didn't want to go. It is always so much fun to just stay on the beach and hang out with the boys from the surfing school.

Finally I had to come back to the real life so I left and went to the center to ask around if I could have my phone repaired somewhere. I asked literally in every small shop where they sell or fix phones but as I doubted, Lumia 950 is not sold in Colombia so nobody could do anything to help me. I spent some time looking for solutions from the MS support site and tried everything they suggested to wake up my phone but no, nothing. This morning I called the support in France but I have to contact a live chat on Monday. They also said that I can download a recovery program on a PC and try with that. So I'll do that also on Monday when I get to work because I can't do it on my Mac. Wish me luck that something helps. If not, then I'll have to send my phone back to France to get it repaired. And in the meanwhile, buy a new one or I don't know. I would just like to have a phone with a good camera when I go traveling around in Colombia. But of course I don't have money to buy a new one since I'm a volunteer and don't earn anything. Besides, I just can't keep buying and breaking phones, it's not normal. And my insurance company is still taking their time to reimburse me for the phone that broke in the accident almost 7 months ago... Good ideas (or donations haha) are welcome!

Despite everything, I try to keep enjoying my life in Cartagena. Last night I met up with an American girl, A, who is new in town and volunteering as well. She was lovely and we had great time wandering around in the Centro and Getsemani. Tonight I'm going out again, to a party in La Boquilla, which sounds cool. My financial situation is very bad because Brazil was a lot more expensive than what I thought so from now on I can still go out and do nice things but I try to spend as less money as possible. So eat less, drink less, no shopping, and walking or bus instead of always taking a taxi. I can do that. :)

Views over Centro and Getsemani by night

I hope you are all doing good, and happy 1st of May celebrations, especially to Finland!​xx Emi

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I'm Emilia, Finnish-Parisian, a recent Master's graduate. I'm currently traveling around the Caribbean and on a volunteering mission in Colombia. I'm passionate about writing, music and different kinds of sports. I can't wait to discover new places and cultures - and share my adventures with you!

* Read more in the About section* Pictures taken with Microsoft Lumia 950 / iPhone SE